This invention relates to a transmission method and a receiving device for an electrical program guide (EPG) which particularly enables easy retrieval of programs broadcast on a number of channels as in a digital television broadcast.
Recently, the CS (communication system) digital broadcast system has been popularly used, in which television signals converted to digital signals are transmitted and the broadcast signals are received at each home for viewing. In such a broadcast system, it is possible to secure, for example, as many as 150 channels and many more programs can be broadcast in comparison with a conventional broadcast with ground waves.
In such a broadcast system, in order to securely select a desired program from a large number of programs, electrical program guide information is transmitted as program information scheduled to be broadcast. This electrical program guide information is received and displayed on the receiving side. Watching this electrical program guide, the user can select a desired program.
In this case, the EPG information is transmitted in the SI (service information) format in conformity with the DVB (digital video broadcast) standard. Every time a request to display EPG information is made by the user of the receiving device, the table of the EPG information is received to display the EPG information on the screen. The EPG information transmitted in the SI format only includes schedule information (name of program, broadcast channel, genre of program, broadcast start time, broadcast end time, explanation of program contents and the like). The receiving device which received the EPG information prepares a display image in accordance with a pre-programmed processing program and displays the display image. Therefore, even if the same EPG information is received, the mode of display of the EPG is different depending on the manufacturer of the receiving device and the type of the receiving device. Although having an advantage that each manufacturer of the receiving device can present its own characteristics, the display mode of the EPG has a problem that the number of software development steps for displaying the EPG has been increasing year by year, making the development time-consuming.
In addition to the CS digital broadcast system, a digital broadcast system using a broadcasting satellite (BS) and a digital broadcast system using ground waves are to be provided in the near future. It is desired that the broadcasts are received by a common receiver for the respective systems rather than a dedicated receiver for a single system. Therefore, it is desirable to provide integrated EPG information that is seamless across the CS broadcast, the BS broadcast and the ground wave broadcast.